Documentary filmmakers, previously the long-suffering artists working in obscurity to complete self-funded passion projects,
have become rock stars in the streaming age. Costly archival clearances and biopic rights have been paid for by deep-pocketed platforms like Netflix and Hulu, and the strategy has always resulted in awards glory.
Rick Perez, the newly inaugurated president of the International Documentary Assn. in Los Angeles, adds, "We're growing closer together in a good way." The former Sundance documentary executive acknowledges the impact of streaming services, but claims that the nonfiction boom is primarily the result of decades of labor by independents such as global broadcasters and various institutes and funds that meet at pitch forums and markets around the world.
The last two years have been gamechangers. In 2020, “Honeyland,” a gorgeously shot movie about an eccentric Macedonian beekeeper living in a remote mountain village struggling to protect her livelihood, became the first documentary to be nominated for best documentary feature as well as best international feature film. Though it didn’t win in either category, the double awards consideration was a breakthrough that helped Romanian investigative doc “Collective” garner the same nominations in 2021 while Chile’s “Mole Agent” was that year nominated in the doc category and shortlisted for best international feature.
This year, Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee” has already broken another record, becoming the first film in history to be eligible in animated, documentary and international Oscar categories. (It recently made the documentary and international shortlists).
The film's impressive track record in the Oscar race contrasts sharply with the Israeli animated war documentary "Waltz With Bashir" (2008), which depicted director Ari Folman's experiences as a soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War and received the only international feature film nomination 14 years ago.
More over 30% of the AMPAS documentary branch is thought to be based outside the United States, which is a staggering number of votes. "For example, you might theoretically get nominated with only international votes supporting you," the source said.
Most documentary filmmakers' journeys begin in the United States, at Sundance, which has become synonymous with documentary in the previous decade.
"The Distant Barking of Dogs," the Danish director's previous film, aired at the International Documentary Film Festival in 2017. Festival Amsterdam, better known as IDFA, and made the documentary shortlist for the 2019 Oscars. But Lereng Wilmont says he and producer Monica Hellström, who also produced “Flee,” weren’t fully savvy to the machinations of the awards campaign at that time.
“We could handle Europe, but that was our first time really going to the U.S. and meeting the industry,” he tells Variety. “We didn’t have a publicist until maybe one or two months before the nominations were announced, and we had some money from the Danish Film Institute to make some kind of campaign, but in reality, we knew from almost the beginning that it would be very, very hard to get the film noticed.”
Lereng Wilmont says his “dream” for “A House Made of Splinters” (pictured) was to make the cut for Sundance. “There are great festivals in Europe and you can do the European tour, but to get it out there in the U.S., Sundance is probably one of the best there is.”
The New Delhi-based filmmakers premiered their film “Writing With Fire” in the World Cinema Documentary Competition last year, reached around 10,000 virtual audience members, and went on to pick up the Audience Award as well as the Special Jury Award for Impact for Change. The Autlook Filmsales-distributed film, about a guerrilla Indian newspaper led by lower-caste Dalit women, has wowed critics and picked up over 20 awards across the year. It’s now the first Indian feature documentary to be shortlisted for an Oscar, as part of the doc race.
"Across the documentary field, there's a reckoning," Thomas says. "People in decision-making positions look and sound like us, and that has a big impact on the kinds of projects they're looking for in terms of diversity of perspectives and authenticity of who's delivering the tale," says the author.
In comparison to international documentary filmmakers from North America or Europe, Ghosh claims that directors from the global South must "run a marathon and a mile just to get to the starting line."
"It starts right from the beginning, from figuring out who's going to fund your film since [no one] has the processes in place to help you, all the way through to having to constantly show yourself and your storytelling because there are certain expectations or cultural expectations,” says Ghosh."
While an awards strategist highlights that the prospect of a best picture documentary contender “gets closer and closer,” the IDA’s Perez says the fact that it hasn’t yet happened despite the enormous appetite for documentary in popular culture is a telling sign: Perhaps it’s America’s own framework of what comprises an award-worthy film that’s lagging behind the rest of the world.
“The world is putting forward some of the best stories on film that they have, and those films happen to be documentaries. It says something about how the world views documentary,” says Perez. “What does it say that American documentaries aren’t on the Oscar shortlist for best picture?”
